Venture summary
- Write for the opportunity, not the features. The sections on finance, marketing, etc are there to see if you can follow through with the opportunity.
- What is the unique value proposition? How does it scale if you took the idea out of NZ.
- Risk and reward.
- Having good credentials isn't very important. Venture capitalists/Angels can provide the right people if needed.
- "Tell me what I want to hear so I can get you there".
Teams
- Teams don't have much in way of hierarchy.
- "We're all in this together".
- Technical questions raised within a company usually traverses down through a hierarchy of roles rather than to team; team disintegrates into a hierarchy or responsibilities.
- Keep the differentiation among team members but need to keep the team integrated.
Market validation
- Customers are interested in what they're buying in terms of benefits rather than features.
- What is the pain point? What is the thing that customers feel threatened or incapacitated by?
- "Product/service X has feature Y. So what?"
- Creating a habit.
- Don't have a solution looking for a problem.
Sales and marketing
- Build a relationship.
- Help people buy. Don't sell to them.
- Don't close the sale when people come to you.
Funding
- Sources close to you: Friends, Family, Foes, and Fools.
- Speaker was entertaining so I forgot to write down notes :-p
- Speaker was from the ICE House so a bit of publicity for their funding rounds.
Financials
- Analogy: A person can live on just water for extended periods but cannot live for long with no air. A business can operate with a cash reserve (shareholder funds) for extended periods but cannot operate very long with no cash flow.
- How well can the business turn assets into sales.
- Assets = (Stock + Debtors) + Fixed assets.
Intellectual Property
- Patent -> Time and Money.
- Time to market: Is it worth sacrificing just to get a patent?
- Trade secret: Coke, KFC.
- Copyright is automatic.
- Not much benefit in registering a trademark.
- Case study: Satellite Spies
Product
- Camera accessory: Orbis Flash
- Prototype made.
- Lawyer was consulted on patenting. Non-Disclosure Agreement used when speaking to people about the idea.
- Savings used to create real prototype.
- Simple market validation by asking friends and people on forums.
- Finding the right manufacturer in NZ and China.
- Entrepreneur also needs to be a salesperson.
- Publicity: Forums, email database, website, YouTube, mavens, banner ads, product reviewers.
- Masters Program to give customers ownership of the product success.
- 3rd party logistics for shipping.
- Crossing the chasm. Technology adoption. Each section is vertically integrated but the sections are not horizontally integrated.
- Make. Sell. Count.
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